Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hello, and welcome to the, give yourself the chat podcast. I'm your host, Peter Lewis. And this show is all about leadership coaching and living
Speaker 1 00:00:07 The life of high performance. So welcome everyone. Welcome to
Speaker 0 00:00:15 Back to give yourself the chat podcast today. I've got a good friend of mine who Tom Shaw, who is speaking to me from Venice beach, Los Angeles. I believe you, Tom. How you doing? I'm good. I'm good. Cheetahs. Good, good to see you. I'm glad you're keeping me healthy and yeah. All is well over here, sun shining and it's a beautiful day. Well, just before we came on, you were telling me about, so you're there pretty much on the beach. I know you're speaking from your apartment now, but you were telling me about, um, what's going on in the ocean right now in terms of the, the wildlife and the, and the phenomenon. Just describe that again. Cause it sounded amazing loss. Yeah. A couple of weeks ago, um, started, uh, you know, starting seeing random posts of people saying there's bioluminescent painting in the mortar and everything like that.
Speaker 0 00:01:01 Um, which I've never seen that in California waters at all, since I've been living here, I've been here about seven, eight years now and been, been visiting here for a lot longer than that almost 20 years. And, um, yeah, decided to take a drive down to the beach. I'm in the beach is only a mile away. Brilliant drove down the beach, our site, uh, absolutely amazing like the waves of crashing. Um, you see this green and blue streaks, uh, of the waves rolling in like lightning. And then you see the dolphins swimming in the now and the causing this, uh, causing the paint into, but by aluminate as a, as they're swimming through, it's unbelievable. That, that sounds awesome. Now for our, our listeners, they'll notice that whilst you're in LA you have a British accent and I'm going to kind of give the background as to how we met, but you're a DJ and producer.
Speaker 0 00:01:56 Um, you go by the name of silky, um, but you also into design and everything else like this, but, um, where we met, we met in the airport. Didn't we, I was about to board a flight, Florida to do iron man, Florida in November. You were just flying back home. I think you'd been kind of touring or gigging or whatever. And we, we met at the oversized baggage drop off and my bike was there, but there was no nobody there from the airport to look after it. So I'm standing guard over my precious cargo and you came up and put a small box down and then walked off and I thought, well, he's confident. And, uh, and I dunno if I put some doubt in your mind, but you came back just to check. Um, and, and I apologize if we struck up a conversation, it turns out I thought it was camera equipment, but it turns out that was your vinyl. Yeah, it was a small box. So it was probably about two big boxes, but not as big as, not as big as your bike box, which who knows what was really in your boat box. But anyways, uh,
Speaker 2 00:03:00 Yeah, I mean, I mean, my box is a pretty secure, padlocked up, but yeah, you're the one who did cause a bit of doubt in my mind because on autopilot, I just left it there and then walked off and then after I'd spoken to you, I was like, Hmm. When, when it's going to get coffee, know, maybe I should, maybe I should come back and wait until someone takes it. Um, which is quite funny. But yeah, I remember, I remember really clearly I remember talking to you and you telling me about the Ironmen that you were doing and, and I'd actually just got into a, uh, well, I just bought a new, a new road bike. Um, yeah. Bought a nice Biyanki. Um, so yeah. And I remember talking to you about that. So it was really interesting to your conversation.
Speaker 0 00:03:47 What was really, I mean, that was quite unusual for me. I mean, I, when I get to know somebody, I can be quite extrovert and talkative, but for strangers and I thought, you know what, I'm just going to strike up a conversation with you here. And I was always kind of deliberately practicing, trying to be more extrovert with that. And I'm so glad we did, because you then started to tell me a little bit about what you do, um, as a DJ and producer, but also you're cycling, you're surfing and all that kind of stuff. So I'm, I'm more struck hearing yours, but then you're asking me about my arm and your kind of AUSTRAC as well. So we kind of just went through and met up in, uh, in one of the business lounges and, and had a wonderful time and always wanted to find out a little bit more about what you're doing, but let's, let's kinda just talk about presently at the moment you're over in LA, there were still in coronavirus pandemic where six or seven weeks in or so, so what's going on for you, what's it like over there?
Speaker 0 00:04:41 And what's your experience so far with the effect on the music industry and all sorts of stuff?
Speaker 2 00:04:48 Um, well, I mean, I think lockdown over here actually happened about sort of two, three weeks prior to UK and California has handled it pretty well. I mean, if you look at, I mean, obviously New York has had it really bad and I actually did used to live in New York before I moved to California. But, um, and that's, you know, similar to London, you know, you've got people in close proximity to each other as bound to happen. LA is a bit more split, although it's an incredibly busy and, and highly populated place, it's still more stress spread out. There's a lot more nature over here. Um, and that's partly one of the reasons why I actually did move over here because it's, it is a great place to, to live, to be, to have a healthy lifestyle, um, you know, working in music industry, it's a, an especially touring and paying shows that you're, you know, you're constantly on flights, you, you know, hotel rooms and then, and then all you see is that club or warehouse or something like that or festival, and then you have to even do the next one, um, not the healthiest lifestyles.
Speaker 2 00:05:53 Um, but this sort of is the counterbalance to that. Um, and which is one of the reasons why I did move here. So going back to the question about, um, you know, what's life like over here, people that, you know, Los Angeles in specific, um, people are very sort of health conscious. Um, although, you know, you do have extremes, um, which is bound to happen anywhere, but, um, people are very health conscious here. Um, we, you know, it's mandatory here to wear masks and, uh, and pretty much most people wear gloves in any you're going into any sort of, um, if you're going to buy groceries or anything like that, obviously there's no, there's no bars, there's no clubs, there's no restaurants now they're only, they're only doing takeout and that's only a select few of them, not all of them. Um, the beaches closed, which, uh, you know, which, which is, which is understandable, or though it's, uh, you know, I do miss it.
Speaker 0 00:06:55 I mean, you were just telling me you had surfing every day, I guess
Speaker 2 00:06:58 It's a thing every day. Yeah. I mean, but you know, it takes me five minutes to get out in the water, which is what my, it was almost my sort of meditation in the mornings. Um, hiking, most of the hiking trails are closed. Um, but you know, you can still, I mean, it's still a very, it's a vast land and you've got mountains that surround the whole city. So it's very easy to find somewhere remote where you can just go on a solo sort of trip, as long as there's, you know, as long as I feel that there's not people around or many other people around, I'm totally happy to that. And you find, you do find the odd person on some of these remote trails and everyone's, you know, acting appropriately and no one's, you know, no one's doing anything, um, to put themselves or other people at risk. So yeah, it's, it's pretty good. I'm bike riding is great. Although you are, you are riding predominantly more on the roads as opposed to the bypass at the moment, but then again, there's less cars on the road.
Speaker 0 00:07:55 I mean, it sounds like a pretty simple experience, although I don't have a beautiful beach and a Pacific ocean with us, but this, and I know Chad, before we came on air, so to speak that, you know, the music industry has been slammed by this. Hasn't it? I mean, if you think about all the places where you would play a set are now, you know, all closed, um, but you you've managed to fall back on some, some prior skills that you've got on your previous, you know, and, and, and, and you're doing okay, but in terms of why is it had such a profound apart from the obvious you can't go and sort of collectively grouped together, one might think that you could still, you know, the music industry was still be alive because of, you know, all the other streaming mediums we've got, but it's clearly not quite that straight. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:08:36 Well, well, in the, in the, in the specific type of industry that I'm in, you know, um, no one could sort of, no one force saw this coming. I mean, it was literally like a bullet, but a bullet hit you and you just fell off the cliff. That's, that's exactly how it was. It was all of a, you know, I had gigs, you know, tour dates booked up until, you know, summer two, you know, two tours tours of 'em, you know, tours of Europe tours of Asia. Um, despite North and South America, you know, I also got residency, uh, four, four, four dates a year in Hawaii. That's, uh, you know, all of, all of that got canceled overnight. Um, it, no one, no one realized what was happening. And, uh, and, and in fact, no one actually realize how much of an impact that this would make it, you know, you didn't, you didn't realize that hold on suddenly a week into this, everything is slowly just shut down one, one thing after another.
Speaker 2 00:09:36 Um, obviously you can understand why, um, but, but, but being in a, um, you know, being in a nightclub or being in a place where you're sort of really close to people, that's probably going to be one of the last few things to open up. Um, and that might take that's. I don't think it's definitely going to have, I don't think it's going to happen this year is probably going to be next year. Um, because I, I still haven't had any, um, my, you know, my agents haven't told me any gigs are coming back assholes this year, in terms of sales and streaming, you know, the, if you're in sort of music that you more mainstream and popular, um, that obviously, you know, you've got people who sort of regularly listen to that kind of stuff, whether it's, you know, Spotify or Apple music, or they're actually even buying the actual singles and stuff, um, when it comes to the music that I'm in, um, I'm into very, you know, sort of a specific kind of sound.
Speaker 2 00:10:43 It's very sort of underground house techno, which is predominantly all on vine. I play on vine, all my releases and now on vinyl. So that really they're really limited to DJ sales. Now, if DJs are not earning money and especially when you're, you're talking about, uh, you know, the ones that do play vinyl that costs about sort of 15 pounds or 15 pounds, $20 per vinyl, no, one's gonna afford to be able to do that at the moment. Yeah. So, you know, the only thing that you can rely on is say, you know, you, you know, I'm using this time to just hone in making stuff, making stuff without the pressure and the need to, to, to follow anything, making, you know, making, uh, making what I want to make. Um, just having a whole material stuffed, ready to be released. Uh, I'm actually in the works of launching a new vinyl only record label, uh, with the, with the residency that I have over here in Los Angeles, even though that's actually shut down, we're, we're, we're almost ready to launch the product once time is right to launch after this. So we're just getting all the chess pieces in order really that's what this time is. That's what this time has been grateful. And like I said, without the pressure of having to do something with the force that you needing to, to, to keep yourself relevant at the moment, do you see what you mean?
Speaker 0 00:12:14 We, we talked about, you know, sort of spreading your risk and let's say you've fallen back on, on skills you have as, as well as your, your deejaying and produce the things. But yeah, there'll be plenty of people that that's it. I mean, everything has been taken from them. So I'm really, really glad that that's kind of working out for you. And now you can buy, you say you can plan strategically when you come out of this. I'm really interested to know. I'm just fascinated by. So tell us, let's go a little bit deeper on the kind of music that you play. Um, I know you're very much the sort of vinyl officiant Ardo and sort of really passionate about that. So kind of how do you come by being the DJ and producer that you are with the sound that you, I mean, how does that journey happen and bring you to that kind of tastes or genre
Speaker 2 00:12:57 A long, long, long time of work? No, I mean, like, you know, I started saying that, you know, my parents bought me my turntables. I mean, I started as a hobby before this in 1994, uh, just playing on, uh, you know, went round to one of my friend's houses and he had a pair of turntables and records, and I was kind of starting to get into slight sort of, sort of soulful dance music at that time, like rare groove and funk and disco and stuff like that. You know, the early days of sort of house music, I would say, um, went to one of my friend's houses and he had a pair of turntables and, you know, he's playing the music that I liked and I had no idea what he was doing or why he was doing it, but I just thought, Oh, this looks like fun.
Speaker 2 00:13:43 So stuff. So, you know, started messing around on, on his turntables. And then, um, I started buying records with nothing to play him on apart from my, my mom's record player, which, you know, you know, she had conferences and the beach boys on it, you know, so just playing, playing my records on there, which, you know, kind of disrupted her piece. Um, so, so my parents decided to buy me a set of turntables, um, in 1995. And then, uh, and then, you know, and then the headache began for them, um, which lasted a long time until I went to university. Uh, which case, you know, it's still terrible at no idea what I was doing. Um,
Speaker 0 00:14:29 Literally just making this up as you went along or did he didn't have any kind of mentorship or schooling at that point then?
Speaker 2 00:14:34 Not at that time? No, not at that time. I was just like learning as well, was that I wouldn't even say learning. I was just messing around and then all of a sudden it started coming together and then long story short, I was at university, uh, managed to get the, a DJ gig in the students union in which that to something else, that's something else. And then it led to one of the biggest Cubs in, I mean, 18 years old, one of the biggest clubs in the country, um, wanting me to be a resident for them. And that's where I met, like, you know, mentors of mine, um, people like Frankie knuckles who invented house music and, you know, a lot of the bigger names that I, that I know and work with now. Um, you know, people who are just gods and idols or that, uh, to me, they still are, but you know, now they're friends.
Speaker 2 00:15:19 Um, so, you know, um, amazing it wasn't, um, you know, never thought it would be a, a career or, you know, never, never thought that I'd go into this as a full time progression. Um, my parents very much installed in me that, uh, you know, you can do whatever you want, just make sure you get your degree first. Yeah. Great advice. Yeah. Yeah. Which thank God I did. And, um, yeah. And then, and then all of a sudden, it just made one record with a friend of mine who, who was the one who sort of showed me the ropes and production around 2001 that blew up. And then that took, then that changed the career and then went into music full time and then, uh, ended up moving there. I think the first time I actually played in Los Angeles, I was like, one day I'm going to live here. And then, uh, you know, got the, got the visa and here I am.
Speaker 0 00:16:13 Well, that's amazing. So when you kind of look back on that, do you identify any kind of sliding door moments there? You know, if I hadn't been in that place at that time, that that may not have happened. I mean, how much of that is involved in this or, or was it just purely just, I'm just going to grind and grind and grind until I kind of break through.
Speaker 2 00:16:33 I mean, you can, you can always say that. I think you could always, always say that. I mean, I've, I, you know, I've, I have worked a lot in this industry, you know, and I've put a, you know, I've put a lot of time. I've lot of put a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of learning into this industry. And, you know, you can always say that, hold on, if this hadn't happened, this might not have happened, but at the same time, certain things did happen that led onto the other things. And if I wasn't in that position, would it have led on to that? I'm not sure. I'm perfectly example of the person that I've met, who was a person who showed me the first person I made my first record with what really good friend of mine. I just got this record from a, it was a Miami based label, really cute label at the time.
Speaker 2 00:17:18 And I just got this record and I was playing at a bar in Newcastle. And this, this isn't a US-based record label with really big artists that, you know, that don't know the names of these people. You don't know where they're from. You just assume that these are, you know, American base artists and stuff. I'm playing this record in Newcastle. And this guy comes up to me, the biggest smile I've ever seen. He's like, that's my record. He's like, I can't believe you're paying it. I just, uh, it was like this first time I've heard it out. I was like, what'd you mean, that's your record? Here's like, I produced it. And I was like, what'd you mean, what's your name? It's like Jim Sykes. And then, uh, the look on the label, it says written produced by genocide is a dentist. He's a dentist.
Speaker 2 00:17:58 He calls himself the equal. It used to, at that time, funny enough, he was the only dentist that played house music while he's, while he's working on patients. And he called himself the, the house doctor, which is quite funny. I love that, but that was his first record. It made it, it was making music was a passion of his, and then I couldn't believe it. That became like one of my closest friends to this day. And he's the one who basically showed me the ropes on, on, on, on how, how to make music. I learned basically everything from him. So, you know, going back to, if I hadn't played that bar and played that specific record out of the thousands of records that I have at that moment, would that happen? Well, I've met him in another circumstance with something else. Well, what's that bound to me in,
Speaker 0 00:18:44 Yeah, I guess we'll never know. And you're absolutely right. You can always look and hindsight's a wonderful thing. So if that didn't happen, it wouldn't have led to this, but I genuinely believes that there's, there's possibly something in the decisions you make or the mindset. I mean, if I gave an example, I had one of the biggest breaks as a trainer and facilitator and coach, because I went on this invitation to go and do some unpaid work. And, and on the flight home, I sat next to somebody who I ended up doing three years work with and, and got really deep in their organization. And not only was it lucrative, but it was very fulfilling work. Now I almost didn't take that work because it was going to be unpaid. But my mindset was what you never know, who you never know what you might learn from these things. And here's an opportunity. So if I hadn't had that mindset, so I do think it's, it's how you go about some of these, how you go about your craft and this, and there's kind of, there was, for me, there was always, you know what, I'm going to go to a new place. This will be a bit of fun. Okay. I'm not getting paid, but who knows? And if you don't kind of have the right mindset and you're never going to perhaps take that opportunity to play that set and then everything falling into place.
Speaker 2 00:19:54 Yeah. I mean, like, you know, I don't, I don't look at it in a way of like, okay, you know, I don't look at it in that way of, okay, if I do this for this person or, or take this, or, you know, am I going to get this back out of it? I look at it and I'm not, I know that's not what you're saying. I look at it in a way it's like, okay, you know what, uh, potentially, you know, I could do this with this person. Uh, and it will be fun for me. I could learn something from it at the same time. And, uh, and you know, who, you know, if you putting something out into the universe that comes from the soul, it's going to come back. Yeah. Yeah. Think,
Speaker 0 00:20:36 Yeah, no, absolutely. I totally agree. Now tell me, so you're very much vinyl and vinyl is now coming back into a Rene's <inaudible>, but there was a time when was just all on a laptop and everything else like this. Were you still doing vinyl then? Did you kind of keep it, keep it old school? Or, or, or is there something that has kind of trend you've transitioned to,
Speaker 2 00:20:59 Uh, well, let's start thinking about, well, <inaudible> three. So, you know, I had about 12, 10 to 12,000. Um, can you hear me?
Speaker 0 00:21:13 I can, yeah, we've got a bit of a back on that
Speaker 2 00:21:16 Connection issue yet.
Speaker 0 00:21:18 Yeah. So we were going to have, yeah. So just, yeah, if we go back and answer that question, I can always, yeah.
Speaker 2 00:21:23 Um, yeah. So, so, um, so I've been collecting vinyl since 1994? Uh, no, not in 93. Um, so I probably have about, well, did have about sort of 12 to 15,000 records. Um, I sold about 7,000 this summer, but, but so, you know, I paid vinyl for a very, very long time because it was only vinyl owning. Then it was decided moving on to CDs, then that started moving on to the CDs, started moving on to USB stick. So instead of actually having your CDs, you'd actually put them on USB six, which is, which is what everyone uses still now. Right. Um, laptops is, uh, another thing which came sort of at the same time with USBs. And, um, I went into, I was, I moved on to CDs. I didn't stop with vinyl. It was just easier to carry CDs. It, especially when you start traveling internationally and being able to make something on the fly and put it on a CD there.
Speaker 2 00:22:23 And then, uh, which was the really cool thing. Um, then the then kind of USP, which is even better because then you're just, you know, you just got this one little thing. You don't have to carry around this. Even at that time, even carrying CDs became a chore, you forget about the vinyl. Right. So then, um, you know, and, and the same thing applies, you know, you could, you know, you could, um, just make something, put it on your USB or, or download a new track instantly and not have to go to a record store, buy it, blah, blah, blah. Plus, they never get ruined. You know, there's no, you know, there's no, they don't get scratched your, you know, your, your record doesn't get destroyed. It's still a collected time. The only problem with that, which I found, and which is why I would say I didn't go back to vinyl cause I never left.
Speaker 2 00:23:11 I started playing vinyl again, taking it out with me instead of, instead of paying U S you know, digit digital format. Um, I just found that for me, it just didn't, I kind of got lost with, uh, with where was with, with music. There was so much I had on my USB stick. I couldn't really remember, um, exactly. I couldn't remember all the records that I had cause you're talking about thousands and thousands and thousands. Plus us sort of got into this trap. You know, you're playing like three nights a week in three different places that have gone into this trap of like being at the hotel room just before gig downloading a whole new bunch of music, because I felt like I had to, because I didn't because I need to change what I paid the night before. Well, really? Why did I, because I played it to a completely different audience than ever before, but why did I feel the need to rush this thing?
Speaker 2 00:24:05 Which I don't even know the music, but because I could do it so quickly and I could hear it for like five seconds and like, okay, this will fit. This will fit. This will fit. But I don't, I don't know those records. I would, I didn't, I was just basically winging it. Yeah. I was winging it because I felt like I had to wing it. Now that completely contradicts what I believe in, in what I do. Because if I'm, if I'm projecting this meeting, people are hiring me to play the music that I love to them so they can hear it and put it together in a way that it makes a story from beginning, middle to end. So how can I do that if I don't know what I'm doing, if I don't know those records. So then I just, you know, I remember just being at clearly at this festival that I played and after I finished playing, you know, people coming up to me and I'm like, Oh, that was a great, you know, that was great.
Speaker 2 00:25:00 And we love that. And I'm like, did you though, did you, did you really, or are you just saying that? Because I felt that I didn't, I felt like I was telling a complete lie when I was up there playing seriously. Yeah. So, you know, I, I remember very clearly. I was like, I suppose when, um, you know, I'm like, I'm really not happy with this either. I just want you to put everything on hold for now until I like just take a little time out. And then I started, you know, just going back through my records, I actually did take like almost a month out without touching anything. And then I'll start going through my records slowly because you know, playing a record, something I've never, ever stopped. That's what I do. You know, take a record out, play it, jump on blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2 00:25:46 And then I'll start getting, you know, there's this, this love came back as in, this is what I did it for, you know, Oh, this record, this record, I know these records inside out, Oh, this that's what I did it for. So then I'll, then I've got support. Well, you know, if I'm going to do this, then I'm going to do it the way that makes sense to me. I don't care how it makes sense to, you know, some other people, some other person who plays a digital format might think completely differently. And that's fine. If your, if it works for you and you're speaking the truth, when you play totally fine, you do that. Yeah. It doesn't work for me. And for me, this is the way it works. And this is the way that I will do my best job in my best performance, bringing that out. So, you know, for me, it's like going back to, um, playing records, finding records, believing in finding stuff that no one else can get, unless you buy that one out of that 200 record that I've got 100 copies ourselves, you know, no one else has got it. No one else is paying it. And, and you know, there's, plus it just gives a bit more of a life performance. Things can go wrong. Things can go wrong when you're playing records. And it feels like I'm actually working for the money that I'm getting paid.
Speaker 0 00:26:57 That's fascinating. I'd like to unpack a little bit more about the sort of guiding principles or what drives your creativity. I mean, you talked about a story you've talked about being true to yourself and everything else like that, but what, what's a kind of what fuels your creativity and guides you to be as authentic as you can, through the medium of your music.
Speaker 2 00:27:22 People, you know, people, people, people are the crowd, like, you know, meeting you feel as my creativity, um, things that you say and things that you do. They're the things that, what, what inspires me about you, you, um, meeting, you know, riding down the beach, um, everything there's, there's so many ways that fulfills that that fills my creativity, but more so is the fact that once when I played it, when I've played a show or played, whether it's a big show, a small show, whatever, but I've played from, from the heart and from the soul. And speaking, like I said, speaking like the truth within what I'm doing and seeing that reaction of people, as opposed to the reaction it comes when I know that I'm not being completely honest with what I'm doing, that's what fuels me even more, you know, and that's what fuels me even more. And, and, and the fact that, you know, I make, you know, when I'm producing music, I make everything from scratch and make it move. You know, it's all myself, you know, I pay piano, I can write music for fun. Now you might not like it. And you might not like it. And that's fine. Not everyone has to like everything, but the fact is that it still came from here. Yeah. You know? And so, you know, when, when that resonates with someone that, that fuels my creativity.
Speaker 0 00:28:46 So, so when you feel those moments where that connection isn't made, or you, haven't kind of been as truthful as you can, is that kind of, what, what would have been missing there? Do you think, are there moments when that it must be moments when that happens?
Speaker 2 00:29:02 I mean, I think, yeah. I mean, look, you, you'd never, you know, when you're carrying say, you know, you're playing a show, let's see the thing is I'm only going to get booked to play shows where the music is on par of what I do now. You can never make, um, you can never make everyone completely happy because some people just might not like it. And that's fair. You know, I have one has to like everything, you know, you don't have to love everything. You can not like something that you don't want to, but as long as, as long as I gave it, my best shot, as in like, I did what I could to deliver this performance or to cater to this performance, the best I could do within my boundaries. Um, you know, as me still being true to myself as an artist, but still, you know, doing what I can to make, uh, then, then I'm happy.
Speaker 0 00:29:53 Yeah. Yeah. And I guess that, that sort of mindset, that philosophy really speaks to this whole, what this podcast is about. You know, it's give yourselves a chance isn't about being beat yourself up and being, you know, kind of, it is just really, how do you make sure that you're the best version of yourself and, and, and, and how do you uphold those particular standards and self-motivate to get there. So I guess,
Speaker 2 00:30:17 Yeah, no, I was going to say that's exactly what happened to me after that. That's exactly what happens to me after the show, because I was literally after that one show that said to you that I'm really not happy. I, the ex exact words I told my agent was like, uh, either I'm going to, I don't want to do this right now, either I'm going to quit. Or I, and I said to her, I'm going to quit, or I don't, I just don't know, but right now can, I don't want to pay any more shows. So it was literally like, you know, and I took that. I didn't even after that, I just knew that I would just wasn't happy at all. I wasn't happy in just what I was doing and what I was projecting out and why and why I was doing it.
Speaker 2 00:31:00 Um, you know, I felt like my values are just completely skewed from, from the original joy and the love of what I was doing in the first place to what it is now. And I just took them. I literally just took that time out to that month out of not even, you know, I focused on other things I focused on, you know, I just went really hard and to just, um, do more yoga and, and, and, and, um, you know, just looking after myself and just taking a complete mental and physical break away from, from, from music. And then when I, you know, when I did, uh, sort of find that joy again and that love again, and, and, um, what I kind of wanted to get out of it, it's, it's a hurdle when everything now is so reliant on a digital format, you know, you don't, you know, and I had to, I had to convince my agent saying, look, I'm going to stop. I want to play records again, out in clubs. You know, a lot of, a lot of the Cubs don't even have turntables anymore. So it's literally like, you know, telling myself and majors, hold on, I can travel again on a plane with bags of records, like I used to do, and I can still do it. Yeah. So,
Speaker 0 00:32:16 So there's, there's a that reconnecting with, you know, you talk about, we can actually enjoy and everything else like that, but I guess it's its purpose. It's your own value set. It's what drives you. It's it's what you, what kind of in inverted commas mission you're on, it's just kind of, you have to take stock of that, I guess, get back on the right path of that.
Speaker 2 00:32:36 Yeah, exactly, exactly. And feel like, you know, now, you know, I meandered off that path a little bit and now I'm back on it and back on it happier than, than ever.
Speaker 0 00:32:48 So how do you, cause we're kind of coming to the end of our time and I can just talk forever with you. Um, but how, how do you keep yourself on track day by day? I know you have morning routine. I know you do a lot of the surfing and everything else like that, but what kind of practical things could we might consider that is useful for you to keep yourself on that day by day?
Speaker 2 00:33:09 I mean, I get up, I mean, it's funny because people in my industry, or maybe the complete opposite of what I'm like, most people are night hours. They make, you know, they, you know, they're obviously they're working at night, but then that changes their, their body clock. So they, you know, they're, they're sort of up at night during the week. I'm the complete opposite. I get up really early. I prefer to start my start my day off, um, you know, with a good, good, healthy breakfast, uh, or I normally three times a week I'll go to yoga pre pre 6:00 AM, then I'll have breakfast at any other day. I would just have breakfast. Then I'll actually go for, um, you know, go and do something outdoors. First thing in the morning. Why it's, why send me call out in LA go and do, do you know when it's a long bike ride or going to yoga or going surfing, something like that, come back home by eight, 8:00 AM.
Speaker 2 00:34:05 I'm feeling refreshed, start, start writing some music and then, um, sort of gets to sort of mid afternoon and then I'll go and have another break and do something outside. Um, you know, always for me that keeps me completely sane. It keeps me, uh, keeps, you know, vitamin D going. Um, and I feel like I've got way more energy than I ever used to have before. Um, you know, drinking lots of water, which is a good thing. And I'm not saying, you know, I like to have fun, have fun, have fun, have a few drinks occasionally and stuff who does it, but predominantly on a daily basis, doing that keep, you know, and having this routine is fantastic. Yeah. I don't think I could, I couldn't go back to the way it was.
Speaker 0 00:34:53 That's interesting because before I had, you know, we have sort of similar sort of structure routines to, to our mornings. Um, and before that you don't know what you're kind of missing out on when you go through it is I could never go back now knowing what I know about what I can access in terms of energy levels and just vibrancy. There's no going back, isn't it?
Speaker 2 00:35:13 No, but the thing is by nine o'clock, I feel like I'll, hold on a minute, I've done so much already and I've still got a full day left. Like it's fantastic. And I'm not, you know, not tired.
Speaker 0 00:35:24 Yeah. Yeah. But she made it tricky to sustain that though, if you're playing a late night set, I guess, and that, that must throw your rhythm out of stone.
Speaker 2 00:35:34 Well, the key is, is, you know, one kid's living how many drinks he has. Two is like, you know, I'm in the routine of like, okay, if I'm playing somewhere where it's a late night set, you know, normally I could, my body is very good at resting or, or getting a little sleep just before, before the gig. Um, but by Monday morning, you know, this certainly happens on the weekend Friday, Saturday, Monday morning, I'm back on track again. I make sure that I, you know, Sunday or whatever it is, I'll make sure that I plan ahead to kind of get my body back on track for the week. Yeah. Um, which, yeah, I know I've been this way now for, I think about four or five years now and it's, it's fantastic. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:36:24 Yeah. Well, you're clearly thriving on it, mate. You already are. So, um, if, if people want to check out your music, where can they come and find you? What would you suggest?
Speaker 2 00:36:32 Yeah. Um, SoundCloud or Facebook, um, SoundCloud is soundcloud.com forward slash silky DJ. Facebook is facebook.com forward slash DJ silky, but then I've got, I've got stuff on, um, you know, the Spotify, there's Apple music, um, uh, stuff under different names. So if you want to, you know, well deeper, um, and find out what those other names are. You'll see like radio one, play this and stuff like that. And, um, and then if you want to buy vinyl, you can find it at any good vinyl store or Discogs, uh, or, or sites like that, or just Google. Fantastic. So
Speaker 0 00:37:14 Venues of good music and, and, um, it's been an absolute pleasure talking to you. We will talk again at some point further down the podcast road, and I'm sure if I ever get West coast, I will come and say hello and pay you a visit.
Speaker 2 00:37:28 We'll go for an easy, a 50 mile bike ride. How's that
Speaker 0 00:37:31 Let's do that. Let's do that, but just don't put me on the decks or anything else like that. I'll just embarrass myself, but it's been a pleasure talking to you. You take care of yourself.
Speaker 3 00:37:41 You say, stay safe.
Speaker 0 00:37:49 Another fascinating guest there on the, give yourself the chat podcast who Tom silky, as he's known, go check out his music. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. And I can't wait for lockdown to be lifted so he can get back on the scene and spreading his passion through this music. I know he's busy preparing for when life emerges from this, but he's not standing still. I'm sure that he's working on his craft, being a lifelong learner. So if you'd like to join me for a conversation around future guests or episodes and subjects that you'd like me to explore, then the conversation is happening over on LinkedIn. It's also on other social media channels. So hit like subscribe forward your community, spread the word, and let's help people through the medium of these conversations on give yourself the chat. But for the time being, take care of yourself, I'll see you on the next one.
